This Could Be More
by idealskeptic
Summary: Maia Roberts and Jace Herondale had something to prove that time they had sex in an alley behind Hunter's Moon. Weeks of banter and teasing and even tracking chips led to the moment they found themselves together. But what if something comes from that, what if something was created that night? What if Maia and Jace are going to be parents? This is that story.
1. Chapter 1

**THIS COULD BE MORE**

 **Chapter One: I Never Mentioned Love**

"I kissed her. I kissed her but I was thinking about you."

Maia Roberts crosses her arms over her chest, not to be defensive but to ward off the chilly wind that whips through the alley behind Hunter's Moon on the early fall night. "You're confessing to me that you kissed the girl you're in love with? That doesn't make a whole lot of sense."

"You're not listening. I said I was thinking about you."

She sighs and leans against a more or less clean spot on the brick wall. "Thinking about me while kissing her does not necessarily mean you're not in love with her."

Jace Herondale gives her a frazzled look. "Do you want me to say I don't love her, that I'm not in love with her?"

"God, no. That would be lying," Maia replies with a shrug. "I just want you to realize that the two things you mentioned are not connected linearly."

He runs a hand through his blond hair and rolls his eyes. "Fine. They're not linearly connected, though I think it's fair to say you were making the connection more than me. I never mentioned love."

"Fair point," she agrees, because honesty is a good policy. "So you thought about me while you were kissing Clary. You didn't tell her, did you?"

"No." He jumps to sit on a short stack of boxes that held cases of beer. "No, I didn't tell her. Her phone rang and interrupted everything."

Maia chuckles and puts one booted foot on the wall behind her. "Saved by the proverbial bell. Nice." She bites her lip and asks the next question as a fellow woman and as a curious girl. "Do you think she loves you?"

Jace's shoulders hunch before he answers. "I don't know," he murmurs, eyes fixed on his hands. "She desired to kiss me in the Seelie Court but she feels horrible that it hurt Simon. Are you dating SImon?"

Caught off guard by the sudden question, Maia blinks and shakes her heads. "We went on a couple dates but… no. Did he say we are?"

"I don't talk to him about that," he exclaims. "I don't really talk to him. Just… rumors."

She scowls in agreement at the way rumors fly through the Shadow World. "Well, rumors lie. I'm not dating anyone. I don't think I want to date anyone." She doesn't look at him when she says this, not wanting to see if he's about to try and convince her to date him. She isn't sure she could turn him down.

"I'm not asking you that," Jace says quietly.

"So you were thinking bad things about me when you were kissing her?" she says, tilting her head to one side as she watches his strange vulnerability. "Like… by the Angel, she kisses so much better than Maia?"

He laughs because she does, but they both laugh uneasily. "No, it wasn't that. Nothing specific. You were just… on my mind."

Maia smiles in spite of the awkwardness. "I'm okay with that."

"Good."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"Why?"

"I want to… know you. Get to know you. I never… friends aren't something I…" Jace blows out an impatient breath before plunging forward with his jumble of words. "Alec is my brother, Izzy is my sister and… I've never really known… friends. And I've never met anyone like you."

She blinks, grateful for being able to delay her response until a trio of police cars with sirens blaring goes by and the alley is quiet again. "So you want to, what, be BFFs? Exchange friendship bracelets?"

He expected to be mocked a little and he probably deserves it. "No. I just want to… be friends. By the Angel, I sound like an idiot," he mutters under his breath.

Maia bites her lip to keep from smiling. He's clearly struggling, even more clearly not used to struggling, and definitely determined to get through it. "You don't," she says. "You don't sound like an idiot. Too bad."

Jace laughs because he is relieved she's not laughing at him. "No?"

"No. And, well, okay."

"Okay what?" he asks.

Rolling her eyes, Maia stops biting her lip. "Okay, we can be friends, dumbass. But not by sitting in this alley freezing my ass off. Either our friendship starts tomorrow or we go somewhere warm tonight."

"There's an all-night diner one subway stop away that has the best cheeseburgers and fries," he offers. "And fresh pie right out of the oven."

She stands up from the wall and pivots to face the mouth of the alley. "If this food is as good as you make it sound, we just might have to exchange friendship bracelets before the sun comes up."

The diner is one of those places that has the air of a time capsule. Everything is just a little bit aged, there's a jukebox in the back corner, and the subway tiles on the walls match the black and white checked pattern of the floor. The stools are covered in red vinyl so shiny it squeaks when Maia sits on a stool beside Jace back near the jukebox. "Whoopee cushion effect aside," she says as waitress in a vintage diner uniform of pink dress and white apron gives her a laminated menu, "I'm impressed so far, Herondale. It's not a Shadow place, though, so how'd you find it?"

He shrugs, not looking at the menu. "I get hungry after nighttime patrols and no Downworld place likes to see a Shadowhunter fresh from patrol."

"Fair point," she agrees. "So cheeseburgers and fries are the best?"

"Yep."

She tells the waitress she wants that, and a chocolate milkshake, and Jace copies her order. "I'm impressed you haven't flirted with her."

"I don't flirt with everyone," he says, a little defensively.

"She turned you down?"

"We're not really allowed to date mundies so we mostly try to avoid them."

"But werewolf besties are a-ok?"

Jace grins as he accepts the milkshakes from the waitress, who promises their food will be up a five minutes. "Who said you already achieved bestie status, Roberts?"

She claps her hands to her face in feigned shock. "You can tease! Who know?"

Smirking, he shakes his head as the waitress brings the food.

Maia is thrilled to find out that Jace did not lie about the food on offer. The cheeseburger is cooked just right, the bun is fresh and maybe homemade, and the cheese - Gouda - is gooey and crisp at the same time. The fries are neither too thick or too thin and seasoned just right with salt and pepper. Even before the pie, she knows that she's found a new place to come after full moons when Chinese just won't do the trick.

"Admit it, you doubted me," Jace smirks when she tells him that.

"Maybe a little," she admits. "Downworld says you guys eat unseasoned raw potatoes and plain, cold oatmeal."

"Only when Isabelle cooks," he retorts.

Maia laughs and, as suggested by Jace, orders hot apple pie with cinnamon ice cream for dessert. That's when decides that full moons probably won't be often enough to come to this place. She lets Jace pay, because he picked the place. "But next time, I pay," she warns him.

Jace cuts his eyes to her as the waitress drops the change into his hand. "Next time?"

She rolls her eyes but smiles. "Yeah, next time. You weren't insufferable so we should do this again. I liked it, maybe because we were away from… shadowy things, you know?"

He does know and he accepts the vague promise of next time. Since she let him pay, he takes the chance that she won't punch him for holding the door for her. She doesn't, and she even talks to him about her favorite parts of the city at night, when it's what counts for quiet in a city that never sleeps. So he walks beside her, sharing stories of things he's seen on quiet nights of patrol.

"What do you do on quiet nights?" she asks. "Break into Coney Island and ride the roller coaster?"

"We only did that twice," he says, smiling at the memory. "Alec was out of town, it wasn't a full moon, I think the vampires were on vacation or something so me and Izzy and did that, two nights in a row. It was a fun."

"You don't have fun with Alec?"

"In different ways. He's not really up for going into places that are closed without having a reason, like a demon. We tried to get him to come once, telling him we knew how to stop the roller coaster at the highest point to scan the ocean for demonic activity but, well, he didn't buy it."

Maia laughs easily at this, flicking the collar of her jacket up to protect her neck from the cold wind. "Smart guy."

Jace bristles and shakes his head. "How do you know you can't see demonic activity from the top roller coaster?"

"Because you said you tried to get him to go, not that you got him to go. If it was possible, Alec would know and he would have gone for that reason, illegal trespassing aside." She bumps her shoulder against his when he doesn't respond, which she takes as validation. They walk in silence for a little while, and Maia's stomach starts to knot with nerves as they get closer to Hunter's Moon, where she lives in the apartment directly above the bar. "Jace? Can we talk? Keep talking, I mean. Now."

His brow furrows at her change in tone but he nods. "Sure. Are you okay?"

She bites her lip and unlocks the door to the stairs that lead to her floor and the two floors above it. It's not the first time Jace has been there, they spent most of the night there when he came to unchip her, but he follows two steps behind her until they are inside her apartment. Maia doesn't take off her coat. She walks to the center of the small spaces that doubles as a living room and kitchen and turns to face him. "I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"For… letting tonight be normal, normalish and not telling you right off what I'm telling you now." Her brown eyes are fixed on an undefined spot somewhere over his left shoulder. "I should have told you before."

Jace balls his hands into fists at his sides and watches her warily. "What is, Maia? You can tell me anything."

She squeezes her eyes shut, turns her head so she'll be facing him, and opens them slowly. "I'm pregnant."

* * *

 **Notes:** One of my favorite parts of _Shadowhunters_ is the all too brief existence of Jaia as a thing. I had to write about it, to make it last longer. Let me know what you think? Do you love Jaia like I do?

 **Disclaimer:** I own none of this. Just playing with what's already there.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two: I Have A Vested Interest**

They meet at the diner exactly seventy-two hours after the first meeting, not having spoken to each other in between. They'd meant to meet after forty-eight hours but Jace had to go when a half-dozen Eidolon demons were reported in the Hamptons. It meant an extra day of waiting and wondering but Maia had a paper due so she went to the New York Public Library and tried to lose herself there for awhile. She left when it closed and arrives at the diner at the same time as Jace. He's limping a little but he smiles when he sees her and she feels some weight lift off her shoulders. They go to a booth this time, without speaking, and order the same food as before.

"Trip on your own shoelace?" she asks with a wink.

"You wish," he retorts.

"Alec's shoelace?" she laughs.

"Nice," he scoffs, playing at being offended.

Maia leans forward, her elbows on the Formica tabletop. "Seriously. Are you okay? I have a vested interest in your well-being, you know. As your… friend."

Jace hears the hesitation in her voice, and understands it because he hesitated to say it too. "A badly sprained ankle. That's all." He leans forward too, reaching for a paper wrapped straw from the glitter coated cup on the table. "How are you?"

"Fine. Still pregnant." She blurts it out because it seems easiest to just put it out there.

He shifts on his side of the booth. "I told Alec."

"I figured you would," Maia says with a shrug. "I told Luke."

"I figured you would."

"He said to warn you that if you screw up, he'll kick your ass."

Jace smiles at that. "Did you remind him you're perfectly capable of doing that yourself?"

She laughs louder than she probably should in a mostly empty diner during the middle of the night about what he said. It's easy to laugh, though, so she does. "I did. He agreed it was a fair point."

He suspects that Luke will confront him at some point, sooner rather than later, about not screwing up or hurting Maia. He does not intend to hurt her, or let her be hurt. "So did that warlock…"

"Catarina," she says, rolling her eyes because she's sure he remembers the name.

He rolls his back. "Did Catarina call with your… results?"

Maia waits until their cheeseburgers and fries are in front of them. "Mm-hmm," she hums as she chews a fry. "I'm fifteen weeks pregnant, all the levels in my blood and things are normal, and she'll do an ultrasound sometime this week. And an amniocentesis, if we need to be sure of paternity."

"Those can be dangerous," he blurts out before he can stop himself, sighing as he sees her eyes go wide. "But we don't need one, right? Because you know it's me?"

"I know it's you, but Catarina said the Clave might insist what with me being a werewolf and all," she says very quickly to get it out of the way so she get to her important question. "Do you even know what an amniocentesis is? How?"

Jace considers a range of answers, including fleeing the diner, but settles for the, embarrassing, truth. "A book. I bought a book after you told me."

"What book?"

"Shut up."

Maia grins, not needing to know exactly what book it is because it's only important that he bought a book. And she'll figure it out later. "Catarina said it will be fine," she tells him to give him an out, because he might be almost blushing. "I trust her."

He nods in agreement with that. "When?"

She likes very much that he doesn't ask if he can come or if she should come. He just assume it's part of the deal. And it is. "I was thinking Friday afternoon. Unless you're busy?"

"Nope, Friday afternoon is good."

"I'll text you the time and address." She stops talking while she eats a quarter of her burger, and tries to think of something to say.

Jace thinks of something first, something he realizes usually comes before the creation of a baby. "Were you born in New York City?"

"Jersey," she says with a shake of her head. "A conservative little town where being born a minority was automatically setting you two steps back in the world."

"So you don't go back much?"

"Ever. I'd basically left home before I got scratched and… I haven't been back since." It's usually hard to talk about all of that, about what happened that drove her away from home, and even though she's not giving him a lot of details, it's easier. Easier than usual, anyway. "So, just putting it out there, don't try and convince me that… that our kid needs to know my parents. It's not happening."

Jace polishes off the last of his fries and shrugs. "So long as our kid gets to know Luke."

She does a silent happy dance at that answer.

But he sees the smile in her eyes. "I think between Luke and the pack and Alec and my… family, our kid will be just fine."

"Since Valentine is dead, I agree with that completely," Maia says before stopping short. "Wait. Your grandmother. You know, she who came up with the tracking chip idea and then had me arrested on exactly zero evidence."

"She'll have to deal," he says simply.

"And if she goes with some antiquated Clave mentality that Downworlders don't get to parent Nephilim kids?"

Jace shrugs. "She'll have to update her mentality."

Maia decides then that most of the stories about Jace Herondale are not true. Probably. But getting to be friends with someone is a two-way street so she searches for a question to ask him about himself that doesn't have to do with Valentine. "Have you ever gone on vacation?" she says finally, going with the first thing that comes to mind that doesn't related to his screwed up family life. It is almost possibly the lamest question but that can't be helped.

"Nope. I've been to Paris and Los Angeles, but for training."

"Hence the need to break in to Coney Island. Where would go, if you were going on a vacation?"

He thinks for a minute about this, feeling her warm brown eyes on him as he focuses on his burger. Vacations aren't really a Shadowhunter thing but living in New York has given him an idea of what vacations mean to mundies. That doesn't really make it easier to answer the question, even as he wonders if she's secretly laughing at his hesitation. "Like, Yellowstone," he says finally. "I want to go camping and hiking in Yellowstone. Or a place like that."

"Low demon populations?"

"Not really. The geysers are warded but, Valentine took me camping and it was all about survival and… not eating if you couldn't identify safe berries. Then I came to New York and saw what camping was to mundanes and… I'd do that." He leans back, his plate empty watches her. "Have you been to Yellowstone? Gone camping?"

"Yellowstone, no. Camping, yes. It was my friend's church camp, though, and I was the only black girl so I think she invited more as a Show-and-Tell thing than a friend." Maia eagerly takes the plate of pie and ice cream from the waitress. "I really do adore you for showing me this place, by the way."

"Adore?" he says with raised eyebrows. "You adore me?"

She kicks him under the table. "Tell anyone I said that and I'll dust off my right hook."

He promises not to tell and they finish their pie in companionable silence. Maia pays the bill that time, but still lets Jace walk her home. They'd resolved, the first night she told him she was pregnant, to figure out things as they went, even in regard to the child they would share. Neither wanted to sit down, make decisions for hours and regret them later. That doesn't mean that doubts and uncertainty don't creep in. And she'd spent almost two weeks trying to figure out how to tell Jace and trying to plan what she'd do if he walked away, or even walked away with the baby. It doesn't seem like that's going to happen but it doesn't mean it's for sure never going to happen. She's been hurt by expectation too much, too often. And how to you even begin to think of what to expect when life gives you this?

"You okay?" Jace asks as she unlocks the door to her building.

"Just thinking," she says with a sigh.

"About having a baby?" he says, because he's thinking about it too.

Maia nods, leaning against the wall where the mailboxes and the door to the laundry room where. "People do it all the time, right? Have kids, even with people they're not married too, and the kids turn out fine."

"Yeah. And sometimes people do it in order; married then kids, and it doesn't work so well."

It's like he knows she was thinking about her own parents. "So basically don't be our parents?"

"Or the evil people who murdered our parents and then pretended those people weren't even our actual parents," he says with a shrug and a tense smile.

"So definitely don't be our parents, the parents we believed were our parents."

"Right," he says without conviction.

Maia reaches out, putting her hand on his shoulder. "Hey. Look at me." She doesn't say more until he does as she says. "If I had the slightest fear, the slightest, that you would be anything like Valentine… you would not even know I'm pregnant."

Jace only looks at her.

She tilts her head and sighs. "Seriously. And if I get any idea as time goes that you're drifting toward him, I tell you. I'll tell Alec and Luke. But I don't think that's going to happen."

"What makes you so sure?"

Her hand is still on his shoulder when she answers. "Gut instinct? My ability to judge people has greatly improved since I got scratched." She tries to look convincing, for his sake, and it seems to work when the tension in his body relaxes under her hand.

"Do you need anything, Maia?" he asks.

"I'll text you if I do," she promises. "And possibly even if I don't. But if I don't text… see you Friday?"

He nods, smiling a little. "I'll be there. Goodnight."

Maia stays in the vestibule until he disappears from sight on the street, then turns for the stairs that lead to the bed that's suddenly calling to her. Whether it is general pregnancy things or late night diner dates or something else, she can't say. She hasn't bought a book. "Life is weird," she says aloud, to herself as she lets herself into her apartment.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three: I Won't Hurt Her**

Catarina Loss twists her white hair into a bun and flicks her blue fingers, making medical equipment appear in the suddenly clear of furniture room. She's showing off for the parabatai of the boy Magnus has fallen for and, as Magnus idiotically does all too often, broken up with. She will not apologize for showing off. "So," she says to him because they are alone, "is your parabatai seeing anyone new?"

"What?" Distracted by all the equipment and that Maia is putting on a medical gown in the bedroom of Catarina Loss' apartment, she has to repeat the question before he shakes his head. "No. Are all warlocks in love with him or something?"

"Goodness, no. One, he likes boys. Two, some of us prefer creatures you aren't aware exist. And three," she said, ticking each number off on one finger, "Magnus loves him and no one with any brains goes after what Magnus loves."

"Yeah, well, Magnus shouldn't have dumped him, then," Jace mutters as Maia emerges.

"I've been telling him that for centuries," Catarina says wearily, gesturing for Maia to get on the table with the metal stirrups attached. "Not about Alex, of course. But other romances that he's ended out of fear."

Jace shakes his head. "Alec. Not Alex."

Maia watched all of this with interest, and she thinks that Catarina sees what she saw - Jace is nervous and she is distracting him by talking about Alec and Magnus. And maybe she has tried to arrange Magnus' love life for centuries. But Jace seems less anxious as Catarina subtly nudges him toward where Maia lays. "You look like you're about to faint," she says, in the spirit of calming him down.

"You look pale too," he retorts.

"Everybody looks pale," Catarina sighs, pulling a blanket over Maia's bare legs and opening her gown so the gentle swell of her stomach was bare. "Even me, and I'm blue. Now… ultrasound, amnio, ultrasound and amnio?"

"Do the amnio," Maia decides before Jace can worry about it. "I know the paternity but… verify that and check to make sure everything else is okay?"

She nods and unpackages a needle that makes Jace sway. Expecting a Shadowhunter to faint at the sight of a needle is not something she'd ever expected to do, but stranger things have happened. She watches her werewolf patient reach out to squeeze the Shadowhunter's hand, obviously as much for him as for herself. "It won't hurt the baby," she explains as she works to set the ultrasound wand on the jelly she's spread. "The needle never touches the baby because I can see the baby on the screen. Now, Jace, I need to insert the needle so I need you to hold the wand right here. Okay?"

Jace takes the wand, his fingers brushing against Maia's skin. He doesn't watch Catarina and he doesn't look at the screen. He looks at Maia, and she's watching him.

"All done with that part," Catarina announces, breaking them away from each other as she takes back the wand. "I'll have the test results in a couple hours. Now for what most people say is the fun part…" She shows them how to understand the picture on the screen, telling them how to see the baby's heart beating - just as expected, how to tell hands from feet - the baby has two of each, and various other things before she asks if they want to know if it's a boy or a girl.

"You can tell?" Jace asks.

She nods. "With one-hundred percent certainty."

Maia cranes her neck to see the screen, but she can barely make out what Catarina just showed them. She bites the inside of her cheek and looks at Jace. "Do you want to?"

"Yes, please," he says, relieved that she wanted to.

"You're going to have a daughter," she tells them and then, leaving a towel for Maia to wipe off with, she turns for her bedroom to give them time alone.

Jace sees the tears Maia tries to hold back and, still holding one of her hands, reaches with the other to brush his thumb over her cheek. He hopes she doesn't see the tears in his eyes.

"Idiot," she laugh-cries as his touch makes the tears fall.

He laughs too and bends low to press a kiss her tiny bump.

Maia doesn't even try to stop being more emotional, because it's more than just tears - things she can't define, then. She's mostly stopped by the time she's back in her clothes and arranging an appointment in a month with Catarina. Jace offers to pay for the appointment and Maia protests that she can.

"Let him," Catarina interrupts. "At least half the time. He's a Shadowhunter, and they're by definition richer than any Downworlder but a warlock. He's also a Herondale, and they're one of the richest Shadowhunter families."

She looks at Jace, who both nods and shrugs.

The warlock sighs, both amused by their awkward non-romance and impatient to go see La Traviata at the Lincoln Center with Raphael. "If it'll make you feel better, Maia, I won't ridiculously overcharge him like I do most Nephilim."

It did make her feel better and the rest was quickly taken care of. Wanting to share their news, they text Luke and Alec to meet them at Hunter's Moon. And then, not wanting to have to hide things or tell the story a half-dozen times, they text Simon, Clary, Isabelle, and Bat to be there too. "Who is Bat?" Jace asks as they ride the subway from Catarina's to the Downworlder bar.

"New werewolf. Like scratched the day you all figured out who Jonathan was new." Suddenly worried the Shadowhunters will get edgy around a new wolf, Maia hurries to defend Bat. "He's fine. It's no moon and he's very chill. He pretty much lives with Simon right now."

"In the boatshed?" Jace chuckles. "Poor kid. Do you mind if I text Magnus?"

She shakes her head as the train sort of coasts to a stop at their station. "It won't cause problems with Alec?"

He considers this carefully. "No. Wait… if I text him, he's going to think I'm trying to get them back together."

"Which you are."

"And he probably won't come so…"

Maia holds up her phone so she can see him press send on a text to Magnus, telling him she has super important news and won't he come, even if Alec might be there.

Jace gives her a one-armed hug. "Thanks." And he thanks her again when Magnus arrives at Hunter's Moon just as Isabelle and Alec do. Maia pulls Bat away from Simon and Clary to introduce him to Jace, Alec, and Isabelle. And her eyes go wide when he blushes over meeting Isabelle. "Don't worry," Jace whispers in her ear, "everybody does that when they meet her."

Simon told Maia a little about Isabelle, the yin fen, and getting tricked by Sebastian so Maia's mind works a little different. She thinks sweet Bat might be just what Isabelle Lightwood needs. And then she mentally kicks herself for thinking such things. Pushing the thought aside, she leads everyone to the one private room at the back of the bar, telling Leila to bring what each of them usually order. She's suddenly nervous to tell them, and she can't explain why. These people won't judge her. The only person who is a little bit unknown is Bat.

"So Luke and Alec know why they're here," Jace says when Maia hesitates, "but the rest of you don't."

Maia coughs and nudges his elbow. "Isabelle knows half."

"Seriously? You told Isabelle?"

She shrugs as Isabelle laughs. "Oh my god, are you…" She claps her hand over her mouth when Alec pinches her. Then, apparently for good measure or because she understands his meaning, she buries her face in the sleeve of his jacket.

Jace rolls his eyes. "Anyway, Maia and I…"

"Don't stay hooked up," Maia interrupts.

"Had sex in alley," he finishes with a wink to her, in part because he can't look at Clary, yet. "And then in Maia's apartment a few weeks ago. Months ago, really. It wasn't supposed to mean anything but…"

Maia holds up the sonogram picture. "We're having a baby. A daughter. We wanted to tell all you together because…"

"Because you're our families," Jace picks up, "so we hope that you will all be our daughter's family too."

Isabelle can't hold back any longer and leaps away from Alec to hug Jace and Maia at the same time. "I am so happy for you both," she exclaims. "I promise to be the best auntie your daughter could ever dream of."

Everyone else promises similar things, in different ways and with different degrees of wariness and enthusiasm. Bat sort of nods at Jace and hugs Maia tight. Magnus promises to be whatever they need him to be, focusing far more on Maia than Jace, before going to get more drinks from Leila. Alec follows him, and Maia is glad for it. Clary doesn't say much as she embraces Jace and hugs Maia, not until she and Simon start ignoring their protests that they are not a couple and trying to come up with a couples' name for them. Jace asks what the hell a couples' name is and quickly deems it a dumb thing, especially when asking only seems to encourage them to ignore their Not A Couple status and think harder. He turns away from them so fast he almost walks into Luke.

"Congratulations," Luke says, his eyes darting to where Maia is arguing with Simon and Clary about couple-related things.

"I won't hurt her," Jace vows. "But still… keep an eye on me?"

He gives a single nod. "You better believe it."

"Good. She's going to need a grandfather," he says, smirking when Luke gapes and shakes his head.

"Come on, Luke," Maia says, suddenly beside Jace with a smile on her face. "You know about my father and then, well, there's Valentine so… you have to. Please?"

"It makes me sound old. Don't you think of Robert as a father, Jace?" He has every intention of being grandfather to their child but toying with them is too much fun.

Jace nods, the smirk still on his lips. "You're the same age as him."

Luke shakes his head. "Sorry, no. He's a couple years older."

Maia rolls her eyes, sensing that he's just playing with them. "Fine. Whatever. Most kids have two grandfathers so…" She reaches out and taps him on the shoulder. "Tag. You're it. With definitely older Robert, of course."

He catches her hand and hugs her. "I'm honored to have you ask and I will be honored to be her grandfather."

She kisses his cheek in relief.


End file.
